4 Tips for Online Marketing on a Budget

Good marketing is worth its weight in gold. But what if you’re short on gold, and cash? Here are four tips for online marketing on a budget.

If you’re having trouble marketing your business, generating leads, and getting more sales just because you have a non-existent marketing budget, it’s time to re-think your strategy. These four tips will help you market your brand and drive more traffic to your website without spending a dime.

Build a Blog

If you don’t already have a blog on your website, it’s time to build one. A blog that is regularly updated with fresh, engaging, and valuable posts will attract people to your brand and will help build a loyal following. In addition, content keeps you relevant in Google’s eyes and help you rate higher in the SERPs. Write catchy content that attracts readers and makes them feel compelled to share.

Don’t know where to start? Visit Google Trends to find out what’s “trending” in your industry or niche and write around those topics.

Writing guest posts on other blogs can also help market your business. Simple searches, or setting up Google Alerts can help you find popular bloggers in your industry. Follow them, read their articles, leave insightful comments and reach out to start forming relationships that may one day become beneficial!

However, it’s good to remember if you’re guest blogging just for the purpose of gaining links, Google can penalize you. Ensure that any links to your website in your byline are “no follow” (readers can click them, but crawlers won’t because of the tag in the code). This ensures that you receive all of the marketing benefits (referral traffic, exposure) of guest blogging without the risk of getting dinged by Google.

Actively Participate on Forums and Other Blogs

One of the best ways to do your marketing on a budget? Visit other blogs, forums, and message boards frequently and leave informative comments and remarks. All of these give you the opportunity to provide a link to your website, which in turn helps with marketing your business. Participate often and become an active and respected member of sites you participate on.

The more you participate, the more you put your brand in front of prospective new customers.  Make sure the comments you leave are relevant and on target. Irrelevant comments made for the sake of leaving a link behind are often ignored or deleted.

What makes a good comment? Be sure to follow these quick tips:

1. Read the article, then read it again. You don’t want to miss something that was already said in the post or misinterpret the author’s point.
2. Be original. Take a once over of the comments already left and make sure your point adds to the conversation, or starts a whole new line of thought.
3. Get there early. Comments in the first 1-5 spots are more likely to be viewed by readers. To ensure you aren’t tardy to a new post, sign up for email alerts for your very favorite blogs!

Make Use of Webmaster Tools and Analytics

To ensure you’re getting the best possible search engine visibility, make sure you’re using the free webmaster tools from the major search engines to verify that your website is fully optimized. Try Google Webmaster Tools for valuable insights on your site such as:

• Page Load Speed – Is your site more like the tortoise or the hare? Slow sites can turn visitors off. Be sure you know how your site scores and what you can do to speed things up.
• Crawl Errors – Don’t let a 404 Not Found page keep visitors away. Webmaster tools will help you identify broken pages so that you can redirect them to the proper page.
• Links to Your Site – Be in the know for who’s linking out to your site. If you’re seeing spammy or unwanted links here, you may want to reach out to those webmasters to remove them to keep your site’s link profile clean.

Then, set up a Google Analytics account to keep track of the most popular content on your site, where your traffic is coming from, and how long people stay on your site. You can use this information to refine your website for a better user experience. Go here to learn more about setting up a Google Analytics account for your site.

Socialize With Potential Customers

Setting up social media accounts for your brand is crucial. Make sure you’re choosing networks that work best for your niche. LinkedIn and Pinterest can be great marketing platforms, but they may not be for your business. Facebook and Twitter are safe bets, but be sure to not bite off more than you can handle.

Provide great, useful content to your followers. Don’t just be promotional, become a resource and post articles and tips that beg to be shared. Everything you post on social media has the chance of being shared by your followers, putting you in front of even more potential customers.

Start researching great social media campaigns done in the past and learn from the best. The important thing is to keep it professional, interact with your followers, and remain active.

When you’re marketing your business with no advertising budget, be resourceful and make use of free online marketing strategies. Often, you can find digital marketing blogs and whitepapers that help you with SEO and other marketing techniques that can help keep your site in the public eye. And check back with our blog regularly for more digital marketing tips.

Don’t sit around and wait for your website to market itself. Put these tips to use today!